Equalize

by Ryan DeBruyn

  It manifested as a feeling of interest he associated with a good conversation. That intense desire to hear the other person's opinion was the most closely related feeling he could attribute to the feeling he had when he looked at plants that were helpful. Interestingly, some plants gave him a sickly feeling as if going near them would make him vomit. Taking a closer look, which was uncomfortable due to the odd feeling, Rocky recognized a huge, evolved poison ivy and was then able to associate this feeling with poisonous plants, which was helpful in another way.

  As the sun set and the group returned to camp for dinner and future slumber, Rocky was proud of the children. He hadn’t had to step into their fights a single time, and they were beginning to coordinate their attacks with a fluidity he admired. He had secretly taken out a few higher-leveled creatures and stored the corpses in his bag of holding before the children stumbled upon them, but the current goal was also to build their confidence.

  The game was a resounding win for Rocky, but he was happy that two of the boys had received the Perception skill and would be improving each time the group ventured out and hunted. Another success showed in the children's increased levels. Each young man had reached level ten today since they were fighting without his aid. This confirmed his earlier assumption that having a high-level tow you around would be safer overall but a much slower way to grow.

  The kids had one final lesson for the day—learning to skin and butcher the corpses of the edible animals they had managed to kill. As the group had slain and looted the carcasses, Rocky had crept behind them and placed the body into his bag of holding. The entire group of boys’ eyes opened wide in shock when he pulled all the corpses out of his ‘pocket’.

  As if Rocky would let all that meat go to waste! Oliver’s eyes narrowed, though, and a sly grin crossed his lips as he realized the implications this act had on the game they played. Rocky smiled back, not understanding the reason for the ranger’s glee.

  After supper, Rocky imbibed the Elixir of Shortened Sleep and asked the three boys to stay awake and watch for one hour, after which he would take the first watch. Then he would wake one of them and return into Ottawa to do some reconnaissance.

  The groans of the kids were cut short when he handed Jason, the oldest, the magazine which listed the objects on sale at the shop. Rocky promised the children he would buy them anything they chose if they provided the Crystallized Ether. Knowing they didn’t yet have enough was a blatant attempt to motivate the boys to continue improving and earning more.

  Shortly after drinking the elixir which had tasted like chalk and sand, Rocky was fast asleep in preparation for the night ahead. The boys kept guard, speaking in tones of awe and excitement while rehashing the fights of the day.

  They had waited until Rocky was asleep because most of the conversation seemed to center around the mysterious man who had been teaching them and keeping them safe.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Over the following six days, the group developed a similar pattern to the day Rocky had saved the group from St. Monika, minus rescuing other survivors. The entire week he had been worried about the group from St. Monika due to the freed militiamen, but he hadn’t yet seen any fallout from his actions. Since he had seen stronger monsters in the area, he wondered if that was because the militia might have its hands full or if his deception had worked.

  During the first few days, the group would hunt and play their strange game of hide and seek. During the game, Rocky was still easily able to avoid notice, but he had been caught on a few occasions by Oliver. The boy had put to use his theory from the first day, and so Oliver was watching carcasses of slain beasts for the unmistakable sign of it disappearing.

  On rare occasions, Rocky was forced to show himself and quietly guide the group away from an extremely high-level creature. In one instance, he nearly missed a beast altogether before his perception gave him a pang deep in his stomach and he glanced over the area again.

  There, half hidden in the underbrush, was a massive snake. The specimen was a Master level Constrictor class, called a terror snake. This terror made him wonder what was going to happen when winter inevitably hit the northern hemisphere. Reptilians did not do well with cold as far as Rocky knew.

  The terrifying snake was the only high-level monster that was master class, and the group was lucky they had encountered it quite a distance from camp. Other than that one outlier, monsters in the area were Apprentice or Journeyman rank.

  Rocky’s rule currently was to help the boys with any Journeyman rank mobs. The creatures that were Apprentice rank could be left to the boys entirely in most cases. Everything above level twenty five in the Journeyman rank or unique he tried to get them safely away from.

  This tactic didn’t always work, and the group had been forced to fight a single desperate and dangerous creature on the third day.

  A bird the size of a horse had dove to the ground, just missing its target, Alex. Rocky had pulled the boy away from the strike and managed to simultaneously injure a wing of the creature.

  This kept the bird grounded, but by the end of the fight, Rocky wasn’t sure if it would have been better to allow it to escape.

  It had been a named creature, called Bullet, who was a level forty-seven Journeyman-Aero. The damn beast had fought like a tornado and had two really unique air skills at its disposal.

  Anytime the beast flapped its powerful wings, it would send an ability screaming at the group. The talent had the power to dig deep furrows into trees, earth or anything it touched. In some cases, it had cut halfway through a twelve-foot in diameter tree. For this reason, the group was extremely fortunate for the explosive growth of the trees in the area. Otherwise, they never would have made it out alive.

  The boys were left scrambling from cover to cover and taking shots of opportunity at the wounded beast. This was extremely ineffective due to its second ability which allowed Bullet to conjure a wind-shield that circulated around its body, obscuring it from sight.

  The group had quickly realized that it would be impossible to hit Bullet if it saw the attack coming. Rocky had used the distraction the other three made and crept behind it under cover of Stealth. This allowed him to release a savage cut into the creature’s back in an attempt to quest its heart, but unfortunately, the thing’s inherent Ether had pushed his blade back and stopped it from being instantly fatal.

  The ensuing close-range skirmish had been bloody and at a speed the children couldn’t follow. Rocky had ordered them to keep firing no matter what, and so they did. Their actions were at times the only reason he lived. However, the real savior of his life during that battle had been his quick and abundant use of Health and Ether Potions. Rocky had used four of his precious life-giving vials in the close quarters combat. His Ether pool had quickly proved inefficient for the task of a sustained fight with Dark Cloak active and abundant use of Dark Blade and Mend.

  Even with the abundant use of elixirs, that particular encounter had been the last fight of the day for the group because Rocky had been severely injured. If he hadn’t acquired a debuff lowering the effectiveness of the Health Potions he may have used more to speed up his healing, however, the group had been forced to carry him back to the camp to treat severe gashes, slashes, burns, and puncture wounds. The boys felt awful until Rocky assured them that they had done more damage to the beast than him.

  Even though their attacks had saved his life, them doing more damage to the bird was a complete lie, and Rocky swore that in the future, they would work on coordinated attacks. His order had been to keep attacking in case he had died, but with that recent near-death experience, he realized just how stupid a request it was. He wasn’t some superhuman that could dodge friendly fire and fight simultaneously.

  Luckily, the Ether sped up his regeneration and, combined with his Dark Mend, he was back to full health and unblemished in a few hours after returning to camp.

  At night, Rocky would primarily explore Ottawa in search of his family and ha
d been unable to find them. His only hope at this point was that they were out of town when the Ether crash had occurred. This was a double-edged hope because he had absolutely no idea where they could be.

  In the intervening nights, Rocky had also scouted the center of Ottawa. The creatures and atmosphere there were a world unto itself. As soon as he crossed the notification about him entering a Territory, it was like he entered the playground of gods. The area was littered with creatures that were so numerous and so high-level he wondered how the hell anyone would ever claim it.

  The massive skyscraper golem was easily sixty stories tall, but since Rocky hadn’t gotten close enough to use Analyze, he didn’t know its level and class. Each golem on patrol was a high level Journeyman class or higher. That put them at least on par with the Yin-Yang golem that had nearly killed him.

  After that startling discovery, he had circled around to the river in the downtown area. There, Rocky easily spotted five reptilian creatures which were titled Spawn of Draksus. Each spawn was the size of a tugboat and around level fifteen master class. Their title made Rocky very weary.

  To him, this meant there must be more submerged in the water, and their sire was still a huge unknown. Not sure which group was the most dangerous, Rocky had returned the morning after with the knowledge that the militia was never going to be able to clear out either nest, at least not in a timeline that made the promises they were giving any real possibility.

  Another night, he snuck into the hospital using Stealth and was forced to leave after fifteen minutes. The bright light and constant people had been great for leveling up his Stealth skill, but it had also made the Ether cost of maintaining the ability so high that he was going to run out of personal Ether and lose the concealment. However, while Rocky was in the hospital, he did manage to confirm where Corsair resided and get a brief idea of what the militia’s levels were.

  The militia’s levels were much higher than the survivors they protected, which proved to Rocky his earlier hypothesis about them dealing higher damage to the creatures during hunts. Each member he managed to Analyze seemed to be Apprentice level twelve to fourteen.

  The second piece of bad news was that Corsair resided on the top floor of the hospital and was guarded continuously. This didn’t exactly make it impossible to kill the man, but it did make it exponentially more difficult. This knowledge led Rocky to wonder if Azoth could fly yet.

  He had quickly checked his pet page and found it to be filled with question marks. When he mentally clicked on them, he was informed that the pet was too far away. The button to summon the creature with his ring was there, but he didn’t do that just yet.

  The last few nights, Rocky had begun to implement a new plan of reading his tablet and hunting creatures solo rather than continue to search over a quickly expanding area.

  After long hours of deliberation, Rocky had chosen to attempt an assassination of Corsair. The intervening days since his decision had been used to solidify his resolve, and since he had seen the militiamen's levels, he was fixated on reaching level twenty before attempting the feat.

  The boys were a great distraction from this bloody inevitability. On a few occasions, they had even pulled Rocky out of his deep thoughts when he was thinking about where his family might be and his loss of Sela. His family, at this point was all speculation, but all of his thoughts about Sela kept circling back around to that horrible place she must have returned to. Rocky easily remembered how terrified of it she had been, and he made it a goal if he lived long enough to get her back.

  During the intervening days of hunting, each child had also progressed in a wide range of learned skills and reached personal levels of fifteen which allowed them a second and third-tier class skill. The selection of which became a topic of considerable discussion.

  At first, they had wanted Rocky to choose for them, but he had decided to refuse, in favor of forcing them to make the decision on their own. He did, however, ask the young men to come up with a good reason and come to him to explain. In this way, he hoped to act as a peer instead of a leader with the boys. This way, it would also be their own idea, and even if it was flawed, it would hopefully teach them a valuable lesson in decision making and logic.

  Jason was actually the only one who didn’t get a third tier skill because he had chosen Firewall as his second skill and was going to pick Ether Barrier as his third. Ether Barrier was a skill that could be placed around him or at a distance of up to fifteen feet. He argued to Rocky that it would be a tremendous defensive boon for the three children as he could possibly ward off killing blows or stop charging creatures.

  For Rocky’s part, he acted as their sounding board, in each case offering counter arguments or advice when he could to help them better formulate their decisions. Jason ended up being the most flip-floppy when pressed of the group, probably because his other skill of Fire Whip had a pretty fantastic description but would be the second purely offensive spell in his repertoire. It seemed to Rocky that Jason needed the two defensive skills to feel safer in this new world.

  During his role as a rebuttal, Rocky asked each boy about their natural feelings towards the skills they were deciding between. In Jason’s case, Rocky led Jason to his own realization of why he wanted the two more defensive based skills. Perhaps if the other boys had options similar, he would have led them all to pick something strong in defense.

  Alex had chosen Deadly Strike for his second skill which allowed him to see red marks on opponents that represented vital organs, and Rocky hadn’t contested his choice. Alex argued for Ignore Opposing Force as his third skill, which would allow him to disregard the effect of gravity to a minor degree per skill level and his personal level. In Alex’s opinion, this skill would make it easier for him to close and disengage with enemies, thus improving his current role in the group as a rogue. Rocky couldn’t help but wonder if Alex wasn’t also wanting to be able to leap from tree to tree as he was prone to doing. The boys seemed to admire that particular action far too much.

  Rocky pressed him to try to see the other uses of the skill, but Alex didn’t see that this skill had limitless potential, which would depend on exactly how it manifested. Telling the boy it might even add to his ability to avoid a slap from Murphy’s incessant present left the eight-year-old wondering who in the hell was going around slapping people. Facepalming, Rocky nearly cried with laughter after the boy asked that question with an innocent face.

  For his second skill, Oliver chose Hunter’s Survivability, which increased the growth of all skills related to forestry. His third skill choice was Multi-shot, and it would turn one shot into a maximum of three depending on the Ether expenditure he invested. His logic was by far the most practical of any of the boys. For his part, he just showed Rocky the two laser rifles and told him that he was exhausting the strikes with them in one day.

  His idea was that if he could use his skill and his own Ether pool more, he could hopefully increase the number of days the laser rifles lasted and decrease the amount of time he was forced to use his sling. Again, Rocky pushed the boy, asking him why he wasn’t considering skills from previous tiers he had missed. Oliver just pointed at Rocky and told him that his specialization came from higher tiers and that this logically meant that top-tier skills were more powerful. This became an amusing and engaging discussion with the young man when Rocky pointed out that his Dark Blade ability was probably his most offensive.

  The boys each had also decided on an item from the shop they were fixated on earning through their daily combat. ‘Legolas’ logically wanted an Elven Bow with a quiver of retrievable arrows. ‘Zippo’ wanted a staff but couldn’t pick one because the effects weren’t listed, so he was trying to save enough for the most expensive then trust Rocky to choose correctly. ‘Flying Squirrel’ wanted a pair of daggers that were Ether infused and would be more effective than his current weapons.

  The fact that all three boys wanted a weapon spoke volumes to Rocky, and if he was their parent he
might have worried, but since he wasn’t, he just nodded. To help with their purchases, he promised to sell most of the skins he was currently carrying and split the profits with the young men. However, he hoped he could buy some tanning supplies during his next trip to the shop, wanting to first grind up some more skill levels before selling.

  I actually wonder if I can sell any of the items I am currently carrying? Maybe it is all just junk. I doubt I will be rich.

  He also really wanted to try to make some type of armor for the children, something more substantial than the nano weave clothing they had received. Rocky also carried a massive number of teeth, scales, and other items he hoped could be sold in the shop for a bit of a profit. Otherwise, they would be getting dumped out at some point.

  An additional resource had been the extensive, accumulated knowledge of the tablet he was reading every morning. The problem, however, was he had hoped to be making quicker progress but, instead, was moving at a glacial pace.

  Using the tablet, Rocky had downloaded a book titled Starting at the Beginning, for Beginners which was a bit patronizing, but he had still downloaded it.

  Even though he had downloaded a book, it wasn’t until his first attempt at reading that he realized he was in for the long haul. It had over two thousand pages which were all filled with monotonous, toneless writing.

  In six days, he had only managed to read a single section, partly because Rocky had never been a speed reader but mostly because the text was so dense it required re-reads, sometimes to realize he still didn’t comprehend the meaning. And this was with Rocky’s improved Intelligence!

  The one section was labeled “The Atlantian System and Gaia”. In this section, the text explained that Gaia essentially treated life as an investment. She would create or import a life form, such as humans and monsters. These life forms would take some of her Essence to build or summon, but if they lived long enough, they accumulated much more than the original expenditure of Ether.